Ride leader goes down.

I have to report my first clipless fall. Stopped at a street corner with cyclist A to wait for cyclist B to finish climbing the hill. There's only three of us as it's still raining and we were the only brave ones. (Well I wasn't brave, I just had to go because I was the ride leader.) Unclip right foot. I'm nearly sure my right foot did touch the ground, if only for half a second. I turn around to my right side to see if cyclist B is coming. As she arrives I can feel myself starting to go down to my left side... This happens really, really slowly. With my mountain SPD I would have been able to unclip. Not with the road ones. I hit the pavement, land on my left thigh. Cyclist A doesn't get it. Cyclist B (a newbie in the club) arrives and feels relieved that the attention is on my fall, not on her climbing.

I laugh, stand up, and we go again.

When I come home I take off my leg warmers... and I have, again, a quarter-size piece of road rash on my left knee. Since I was 10 years old I just keep bruising myself at the same spot. The rest of the ride was fine but now my knee feels really sore, the nerve that runs somewhere there is really annoyed at being attacked by asphalt all the time. No running tomorrow.

Short and slow ride in the rain, but still it was beautiful in a way.